Relatives of Holocaust survivors connect with Wellington woman, whose father hid 16 Jewish people in Poland home

Friday, 26 February 2021

Wellington woman Eva Woodbury says her father, Wladimir Riszko, hid 16 Jewish people in his home in Poland from 1942 to 1944. A few weeks ago, relatives of the survivors contacted her.

Eva Woodbury has been going through a “kaleidoscope of emotions” after relatives of Holocaust survivors her father hid in his Poland home for two years have contacted her.

Now, they are campaigning for her father, Wladimir Riszko, to be a Righteous Among the Nations, a title used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jewish people who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. They’re also hoping to find descendents of other people he saved.

The Holocaust, between 1939 and 1945, was the mass genocide of six million Jewish people. Jewish communities came to New Zealand during early European settlement and more as refugees arriving from Nazi Germany before and after World War II.

Riszko hid 16 Jewish people in the basement of his home in Przemyśl from 1942 to 1944 – one of those people was her mother, Renee.

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By the time her mother had come to his home, two of his friends and a niece of one of them were already living there.

“I don't know how he managed to feed 16 people at the height of the war for two years,” Woodbury said.

A picture of Eva’s family including her uncle Sol Schildkraut, left, mother Renee, father Wladimir, and brother George.

Do you or someone you know recognise the names on the list and Wladimir Riszko? Email mandy.te@stuff.co.nz

After the war, Woodbury and her family came to Wellington in 1951 from Italy.

The list Eva Woodbury and her mother Renee wrote. The list contains the names of people Woodbury's mother was hidden with.

“My parents sacrificed a lot. They wanted to make a new life for my brother and me. They'd always tell us to do our homework because they wanted their children to have everything they didn't have.”

While Woodbury is slowing filling in the gaps of her parents’ past, there's still some holes and blurry details.

Sara Bank Wolf’s grandparents, Chaim and Sara Feingold-Bank, and father Dov in 1949. They were hidden in Wladimir Riszko's home in Eastern Poland.

Her mother was traumatised, experiencing nightmares and post-traumatic stress disorder and her father did not speak about the past.

“His father was killed in World War I, and his mother and sister were taken to Russia – he never saw them again.”

It was only through her mother that Woodbury learnt of the people he saved and their names, which they wrote on a list.

One was “Feingold, wife and child”. The daughter of that child, Sara Bank Wolf, played a major role in putting all the pieces together.

Speaking from Israel, Bank Wolf said she had always been interested in her family history and would interview her grandparents when she was a teenager – trying to find information on who their rescuer was.

“Finding out about my family’s history has always been my passion, so I've never let it go.”

Bank Wolf kept an eye on Jewish genealogy sites, but she gives credit to social media.

Speaking to her mum over the phone, Bank Wolf brought up her family’s past again.

“She remembered my grandfather saying the man [who hid them] moved to New Zealand and married one of the Jewish women he saved.”

Bank Wolf contacted the only person in New Zealand she knew, performer Deb Filler, who encouraged her to get in touch with the Holocaust Museum in New Zealand.

Eva Woodbury says she does not know how father, Wladimir Riszko, fed 16 people at the height of the war for two years.

Soon after, Bank Wolf received two emails - one from Woodbury and her brother.

“I couldn't read it fast enough or write fast enough. My heart was beating, my teeth were chattering – the only time I've felt like that was before I gave birth.”

And when she spoke to Woodbury for the first time, there were tears and constant smiles.

The Kristallnacht commemorative concert, Night of Broken Glass, gives voice to musicians and composers who were silenced during the Nazi regime. (Video first published in November 2020)

“It’s been overwhelming and something propelling me forward. The ultimate feeling is like we’re family.”

Bank Wolf will continue to undertake research in the hopes of finding relatives connected to the nine other people Woodbury's father saved. She also wanted to meet everyone in Jerusalem where she hoped Woodbury's father would be honoured.

“Every day, every minute was really a risk. The more I dig into this, the more I realise how miraculous of a deed he did. I mean, even to himself, there was risk – he was married to a Jewish woman and had a Jewish baby during this time.”

Woodbury said it would mean the world to her for her father's bravery to be acknowledged through a Righteous Among the Nations.

That meant more research was in the works, such as where the house exactly was. Woodbury also hoped people would get in touch if they recognised her father or the names of the 16 Jewish people he saved.

“He was such a modest, shy man. His courage has never been recognised so this has been a driving force.'

While the past few weeks have been exhausting for Woodbury, she felt as though she had met new family members.

A bond would between them would be there for the rest of their lives, she said.

LIST OF NAMES

Renee Riszko (Eva Woodbury's mother)
Mayer Dornbusch (relatives found)
Regina Dornbusch (relatives found)
Tobiasz Czuper (relatives found)
Feingold, wife and child (relatives found)
Sam and Max
Sam and Max's sister, husband, daughter and brother-in-law
Sam's girlfriend called Frania
Frania’s sister Ruzia
Sam’s nephew Juzek